Posted on 12/15/2001 8:11:09 AM PST by Lance Romance
Waltham home-school kids put in DSS custody
by Ed Hayward
Saturday, December 15, 2001
A long-standing feud between a Waltham couple intent on home schooling their children and the city has resulted in a judge's decision to put the two kids in the custody of the Department of Social Services.
While Framingham Juvenile Court Judge Kathryn White said DSS will serve as the guardians of the children until they are 16, there was no order to turn the Bryant children - Nyssa, 12, and George, 13 - over to DSS. The two remain at home.
``My opinion is this is all about who has custody of the children,'' Kim Bryant said yesterday. ``It has nothing to do with whether the children are educated or what the children learn.''
Kim and George Bryant have argued it is their right to home school the children without filing reports or testing results with the city school department because, in their opinion, there's no such requirement in the U.S. Constitution.
The parents, who have handled their own legal work, plan to appeal the latest ruling. A call to Waltham Mayor David Gately, who chairs the School Committee, was not returned.
The battle with Waltham schools has been going on for five years. Once before, a judge granted custody of the children to DSS and ordered the parents to file reports required by the state school attendance laws.
The Bryants complied but failed to file the lesson plans with the city in September. That set off a chain of complaints against the couple by the city.
DSS has found no need to intervene and Middlesex County prosecutors turned down the case.
But on Dec. 7 Judge White found in favor of the city's claim that the children were in need of ``care and protection'' even though she found no evidence the children had been abused or neglected.
DSS spokesman Michael MacCormack said the agency is watching the case and waiting to see if the Bryants comply with the city's request for an education plan.
``It's the school department and the court they have to satisfy,'' MacCormack said. ``We were brought in just to make sure that gets done.''
Kim Bryant said her husband filed the plan yesterday and the two are waiting for a response from the city's attorneys. In the meantime, the couple continue to educate the two children at home.
``We think it's the best education that they can get,'' said Kim Bryant. ``We want to strengthen the family bond.''
Kim Bryant said she fears violence in the public schools and also disagrees with the current testing craze.
``I'm not impressed with testing,'' she said. ``I don't think testing gives you a good picture of a child, really. I think it's very stressful on children to take tests. I don't find them necessary because I'm working with the children every day. I have a good handle on what they know.''
This is ridiculous. Those children hadn't even read "Heather has two mommies". How could they expect to assimilate into society?
You'd think the city would have more pressing matters to worry about than whether homeschooled kids are tested.
A homeschool Mom of ten years
Attitudes like yours (not trying to poke at you unnecessarily, just trying to get you to think about this issue) are the reason why government power continues to grow. "If we just appease them by filling out these forms," you think, "they'll just go away and leave us alone."
In reality, it is the fact that people unquestioningly go along with the absurd demands of government that government continually ups its demands of citizens. Appeasment does not work with liberal statists. They figure that if you'll put up with the little intrusions, you'll put up with big ones, too. They just incrementally add more restrictions and requirements to your life, and by the time you realize just how much autonomy and freedom you have lost, the govt has so much power that it is now very hard to rein in.
We have to start fighting over the seemingly benign "little stuff" or soon we'll be fighting over the not-so-benign "big stuff."
This is an outrage...how dare they put the burden of proof on these homeschooling parents! What is the basis in law for that?
IT'S NOT JUST "THEIR OPINION"!! IT IS A FACT!!
You do realize that that's a two-way street right?
Reasonable people may deal with the Nanny State in numerous ways.
What is "reasonable" varies depending on the person's situation in life. A father with a wife and children to support is liable to have one response; while an aging grandfather who has just been given 6 months to live by his doctor is liable to have a totally different response.
Today's "fathers" are tomorrow's "grandfathers". And once crossed by the Nanny State, those grandfathers are going to be well past the point of "making a list and checking it twice".
(You DO have to close one eye to aim...............)
Every freeper needs email addresses for the Waltham city council members and mayor David Gately. However, I can't provide them because the Waltham city web page does not show them. I guess when you're an elected leader with a fascist bent you find it best to not make your email address public knowledge.
However, as a standin for the mayor et al here's Waltham school superintendent Dr. (oooooh, "Doctor", I'm impressed) Susan I. Parella's email address.
At the school site you can also read about the district's Systemic (ooooh, systemic!) Goals and Initiatives. Of course they're not just ordinary goals and initiatives because as you all know you can't be a well doctored educator without using fancy words needlessly. In this case I believe the word systemic is used to mean "these goals won't do crap as far as improving your kid's education but still isn't that a cool title and wasn't developing a report full of blather a cool way to funnel tax dollars to some teachers over the summer".
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